Page:Isaiah Bowman - Desert Trails of Atacama (1924).pdf/320

 Andes is given as 2487 over an area of 90,000 square kilome- ters, (34,750 square miles, nearly the area of Indiana). Distri- bution by departments is thus: San Antonio de los Cobres, 961; Antofagasta de la Sierra, 378; Pastos Grandes, 268; Susques, 880. Among the settlements of the Puna the three most important because of their connections or the number of

. 111—Pen sketch of Antofagasta de la Sierra drawn from photograph on page 71 of Vol. 1, La Frontera Argentino-Chilena, Demareacién General, 1894-1906, Oficina de Limites Internacionales, Buenos Aires, 1908.

permanent inhabitations and their history are Antofagasta de la Sierra (Fig. 111), San Antonio de los Cobres, and Susques. Their clevations are respectively: 11,319 feet (3450 meters), 11,975 feet (3650 meters), 12,467 feet (3800 meters) and their populations, 250, 800, and 400.

Among the places mentioned above, Antofagasta de la Sicrra has the largest extent of cultivated Jand. It can boast of 8 hectares (20 acres) of alfalfa besides 675 hectares (1660 acres) of natural pasture watered by the discharge of the Anto- fagasta River, on the left bank of which stands the village. The place consists of about fifteen occupied huts, and there is